The New Flex

As I am going through the latest Flex offering, I see it has retained much of what was loved about it, rectified some annoying points and added some things as well. Unfortunately, it is still a work in progress and I reckon it is going to give grief for some time. It is good that Adobe has opened the SDK to Apache, hopefully somebody will come up with a better IDE, better debugging tools and more stable releases. On the business note, it does exemplify how difficult it can be to absorb an alien technology/company. Adobe bought Macromedia, but was totally lost about how to handle the Flash offering. It made a brilliant opening gambit, but has more or less went from one disaster to other for a long time. Finally now, there does seem to be hope for a brilliant platform that is being criminally sabotaged by Adobe, possibly for want of better Product Managers. The recent changes indicate a welcome fresh thinking. How far this will go? I guess we will have to wait and watch.

Handing Security Error 2148

Nice post detailing how to solve the problem: Resolve Security Error 2148

Joomla Resources

Was just exploring Joomla as a way of creating websites quickly. Just compiling a few links and resources that may be useful

JoomlaArt.com
Rockettheme.com
JoomlaBamboo.com
http://extensions.joomla.org

Flex: A Change for Good

It seems that finally somebody in Adobe is thinking differently. The partnerships that Flex has made with Spring and some aggressive work on Java integration should put back Flex where it rightly belongs. After many wrong steps, finally a sensible product manager who thinks about the ecosystem and not just his product. It doesn't mean that the battle is over, and Adobe has to still work hard to get it going for mobile devices more efficiently. Still, compared to the mess in previous years, good job!

I am putting up my technical review notes in this online doc

Respite for Adobe

Some respite for Adobe as Apple has agreed to ease certain restrictions on the use of Adobe software. Adobe's strength lies in desktop softwares to develop graphic applications and UI. In the rich-internet application (RIA) arena, it still lags behind. Acquisition of Maromedia and Flash has not translated into leadership position that it may have hoped for, though Flash video streaming did turn out to be a winner. Even that may be lost to HTML5 if Adobe is not careful. Its about time that Adobe digested Flash and gets back to the good performance that is expected out of a company of its calibre, failing which it would be only fair for developers to punish it further.

Flash's Final Gambit: Droid 2

After some serious lack of imaginative development, shoddy product management and heavy criticism, it seems that Adobe has decided to play an all or nothing hand with Droid 2. This article in PC World brings out the point very well. I think it would help Adobe either defend Flash for mobile devices or seriously re-think its development strategy for the same.

Going for the Jugular

Double wham! On one hand Steve Jobs comes out with an open letter explaining why he won't support Flash on Apple devices, on other hand Microsoft announced that IE9 will use only the H.264 standard to play HTML 5 video. Bad news for Flash and will definitely affect its reach and power.

In my opinion, it is time for Microsoft to go for the jugular. It has Silverlite coming up as a credible alternative to both Flash Developer 4 and javaScript for developing RIAs. It has the marketing knowledge, distribution network and the good sense to achieve what Flex could not. In the process, it may end up displacing Flash from RIA arena and making good revenues. My free advice would be better start moving on with Silverlite and focus on the obliteration of Flash!